How to make handmade rockets

1 Preparation materials. Three or four 2.5-liter Guinness or Coke bottles, a number of X-ray film, a few chemical equipment with the No. 3 and No. 4 soft plastic plugs, a complete set of bicycle valve heart, scissors, knife each one, transparent tape, double-sided tape and insulating tape, 502 glue.

2 wing production. With scissors, the X-ray film cut into the same size of right-angled trapezoid 28 pieces, trapezoidal length of 12cm, 6cm high, oblique waist and long bottom angle of about 45 degrees. Cut another 4 trapezoids of the same size as above but 8cm high, with short bottoms connected and overlapping on both sides (to be used as the surface of the wing). Tightly glue the 7 small pieces of trapezoid into a thick trapezoid with double sided tape so that it is straight and flat, then tightly wrap and glue a large double sided trapezoid around it. To make the thick side of the wing flat, trim it flat and straight with scissors or a knife, then seal the thick side of the wing with insulating glue. Finally, fold the wing's two long sides outward to 90 degrees. In this way, the rest of the X-ray film as described above to make three wings.

3 Fuselage making. Take a Guinness bottle (the head of the bottle arc over the more natural, as the rocket head is conducive to reducing air resistance) in the lower 11cm from the end of the cross-section cut, with insulation glue with the mouth of the bottle part of the bottom of another bottle, with insulation glue in the interface more winding a few times in order to be firm.

4 Gas plug production. Take a No. 4 soft plastic plug, with a hole tool at the bottom of the plug in the center of a hole than the valve core sleeve slightly smaller than the flat hole, and then use a knife to cut the thin end of about 0.6cm; will be on the valve core sleeve on a larger area of the "ring" (hardware stores sell), from the thin end of the soft plastic plug up to the valve core is installed, set on one of the same "ring". The same "ring", screw on the screws, a little tight can be. Finally, use a whetstone to grind the gas plug into a cylinder, just enough to fully enter the mouth of the Coke bottle or a little tighter, install the valve core can be used.

5 Cannon head making. Take a #3 soft rubber plug and sharpen and round it with a knife.

6 Assemble the wing. Take a Guinness bottle and cut a cylinder that is slightly longer than the length of the wing with two sides connected, then use clear glue and insulating glue to glue the 4 wings in 4 equal parts tightly. Finally, put the cylinder of the glued wings on the bottom of the water rocket so that it is level with the bottle mouth (this is not necessarily the best position, can be adjusted up and down to find the determination in the flight practice), and wrap the insulating glue tightly.

7 Other. In order to increase the contact surface of the air plug and the bottle mouth to increase the air pressure inside the bottle, use a knife to thin the big end of the air plug and make it round and rough. As the body grows a section for the rocket head, the rocket head part is lighter and unbalanced, you can properly stuff paper inside to achieve balance. In order to minimize air resistance, will be made of soft plastic plugs with 502 glue in the rocket head bottle mouth.

According to the above method a simple water rocket will be completed. According to our development of water rockets, through the practice of improvement, horizontal flight up to about 160 meters, vertical flight up to 40 ~ 50 meters.

Water rocket launch method:

1 water regulation. Water rocket water and rocket space has a certain proportion, not too much or too little, the best water consumption for the rocket space about 1/4 to 2/5 between (2.5 liters of space about 600 ml or so, you can test a few more times to find to determine).

2 Launch angle. Horizontal flight, due to the resistance of the air, the optimal angle of launch between 50 and 55 degrees, different water rockets may be different, can be determined by the method of control variables test. (The optimal angle for the water rockets we made is around 53 degrees). For vertical flight, it is 90 degrees.

3 Air plug use. The principle of the use of gas plugs is to adjust the tightness of the gas plug by compressing the soft rubber plug volume expansion, the more compressed the greater the volume expansion, the tighter the gas plug, the tighter the gas plug to punch out of the air pressure is greater, that is, the greater the power of the rocket. Specific methods of use are as follows: first of all, remove the valve core of the gas plug, the gas plug in its original form into the bottle mouth of the rocket, and then use a sleeve (a special tool for screwing screws, hardware stores sell) to tighten the screws of the gas plug, and finally install the valve core can be added to the use of gas. (Note: The degree of tightening can be adjusted as needed.)

4 Launch stabilization. Only discuss the horizontal direction of the launch. Need to make a launch pad, launch pad to be equipped with a navigation track, navigation track is not too long or too short, generally 60cm long (three large triangular plate and two broomstick can be used to teach cobbled together, in order to reduce the friction of the broomstick as a navigation track on the water rockets, transparent glue can be used to paste the broomstick or the model shown in the illustration). When there is no wind, the target should be launched according to the best launching angle (the angle between the launching track and the ground). Windy weather, depending on the wind and wind direction should be adjusted appropriately with the direction of the launch target, to maintain the best launch angle launch.

5 Caution. Launch, ensure that the rocket and the orbit of the same straight, if deviated from 1 ~ 2 degrees will affect the smoothness of the flight and the "8" type flight. When inflating with the air cylinder, do it as smoothly as possible, and do not inflate too slowly, but rather quickly. The air plug should be tightened as much as possible, which can be adjusted by tightening the screw of the air plug. The tighter the air plug, the higher the air pressure inside the bottle, and the more power the rocket will have.

Take the first bottle, call it bottle A. Draw a line at 1-1 and 2-2 above and below the bottle, and decide the position of the two lines as follows.

1-1: Choose a place where the curvature of the arc on the bottle is similar to the curvature of the rocket foam head.

2-2: Pick the bottom of the bottle where the curve turns straight about 0.5cm below.

Cut (snip) with a craftsman's knife (or scissors) from about 0.5cm above the 1-1 line and below the 2-2 line.

Trim slowly with scissors to the line, trying to make it as flat as possible, so that it can be more closely connected to the B bottle.

Place the Rocket Foam Head on top of Bottle A, and check from above to see if it is centered on the center of the bottle. If it is, wrap electrical tape around the joint to secure it.

Take another bottle, call it Bottle B, remove the cap, and screw the nozzle through the opening of the bottle.

Connect bottles A and B together. Then roll it on a flat table or floor to see if it is connected and rolling smoothly. If so, secure with electrical tape.

Connecting the bottles

Take the third bottle, called C bottle. Draw a line at the position of bottle 3-3 and 4-4.

3-3: Select about 0.5cm below the turning point of the curve on top of the bottle.

4-4: Select about 0.5cm below the turning point of the curve on the bottom of the bottle.

Cut with a craftsman's knife (scissors) from about 0.5cm above the line of 3-3, and about 0.5cm below the line of 4-4.

C Bottle Finished Drawing

Fold the thick cardboard in half and draw four trapezoids with a pencil. Then use scissors to cut along the lines.

Note: The size and shape of the tail can be varied to test how it affects flight.

Similarly, use a slide to make trapezoids of the same size as the cardboard.

Wrap the slide around the outside of the trapezoidal shape of the cardboard, using double-sided tape to join the slide to the cardboard, and then use electrical tape to tape over the three sides.

Apply double-sided tape to the bottom of the folded section. This step is for attaching the four finished tails to the C-bottle.

The four tail fins are finished.

Attach the four tails to the C bottle, making sure they are cross symmetrical so that they are balanced.

First, use electrical tape to stick on both sides of the tail fins. When sticking, note that the length of the tape must be long enough, and the upper part must be higher than the tail fins by about one tape height, while the lower part is folded back into the C-bottle to increase the degree of solidity. Then wrap the electrical tape around the top of the tailgate about two times.

Connect bottle C to bottle B with electrical tape.

Note: It is also important to keep the body of the water rocket straight to ensure accurate flight direction.

The completed picture of the Bowtie bottle water rocket.